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Thousands Rally To Denounce Government Crackdown

GOMBAK, MALAYSIA — About 20,000 supporters of Malaysia's opposition parties and leaders of human-rights groups gathered outside the capital Sunday to denounce a government crackdown on dissent.

In an unusual show of unity, leaders of four parties and more than a dozen non-governmental organizations held a rally about 10 miles from the capital to press for the repeal of a law used to detain dissident leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Although authorities had banned all public meetings, police allowed the peaceful rally, held at the local headquarters of the Islamic fundamentalist opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, on condition that it had to end by midnight local time.

It was the biggest political meeting since a rally Sept. 20 in central Kuala Lumpur at which former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar called for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to step down.